Alabama journalist Ivana Hrynkiw was told she could not observe convicted murderer Joe Nathan James Jr.’s lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore because her skirt was too short and violated the prison’s dress code, reports the Washington Post. Hrynkiw had to accept a photographer’s offer to let her wear his rain gear and then retrieve a new pair of tennis shoes from her car because her open-toed heels were “too revealing” before being allowed to cover the event.
Her boss, Kelly Ann Scott, editor in chief and vice president of content for Alabama Media Group, called the incident “sexist and an egregious breach of professional conduct” that “should not happen to any other reporter again.” Prison officials have not enforced a dress code in the previous decade that Hrynkiw and other reporters have covered executions. However, corrections spokeswoman Kelly Betts told reporters that the new warden at the Holman prison, Terry Raybon, had decided to invoke the dress code policy, which had long been dormant.